Catastrophic flooding began in June 2022, and the situation remains an emergency, with critical humanitarian needs growing. People had to leave their villages and spend months living in camps with or without shelter and access to basic needs. Now that the water has receded in some areas and people are returning to their villages, they are finding their houses and land damaged and infrastructure destroyed.
In Sindh and eastern Balochistan, Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams are seeing high numbers of people needing treatment for malaria and alarming numbers of acute malnutrition.
Access to healthcare remains a challenge in Pakistan, especially for people in rural communities, informal settlements and areas affected by conflict.
Mother and Child Health
Healthcare for women and children is a serious concern in Pakistan. Women in rural areas die from preventable complications during pregnancy and delivery, and neonatal care is unavailable in many areas.
The availability of free, high-quality medical care is limited for women and children, particularly in rural areas.
We work in four different locations in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to provide reproductive, neonatal and paediatric care. The team also manages an emergency room and offers inpatient and outpatient nutritional support for malnourished children under the age of five. These services are available to local communities, Afghan refugees and people who cross the border from Afghanistan to seek medical. assistance
MSF operates a comprehensive 24-hour emergency obstetric care service, which include surgery and referrals for complicated cases. We also run inpatient and outpatient therapeutic feeding programmes for severely malnourished children in Balochistan.
Endemic diseases
Cutaneous leishmaniasis, a disease transmitted by the bite of a sandfly, is endemic in parts of Pakistan.
The disease is characterised by disfiguring and painful lesions. We run five treatment centres for this disease; three in Quetta, Balochistan, one in Bannu and one in Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Our teams offer diagnosis, treatment, health education and counselling.
The cutaneous leishmaniasis programme has been expanded to the outskirts of Peshawar through MSF satellite clinics. In 2020, 3,363 patients were started on treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Pakistan also has one of the highest prevalence rates of hepatitis C globally. In a clinic we run in Machar Colony, a densely populated informal settlement in Karachi, we provided nearly 4,602 consultations for hepatitis C in 2020.
Emergency response
MSF supports the Pakistani authorities with emergency response preparedness in case of disease outbreaks or natural disasters.
When floods hit the Sindh region in October 2020, as a post-emergency response , we set up mobile clinics that visited 25 flood-affected villages in Tehsil Johi. Two medical teams provided basic outpatient medical services to more than 4,000 patients over the course of a month. Also, essential relief kits were provided to 2,500 families affected by the floods in five union councils of Tehsil Johi.
OUR COVID-19 RESPONSE IN PAKISTAN
MSF teams are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan.
In Karachi, we are providing COVID-19 vaccination services to support the Government of Sindh’s mass vaccination campaign at the Rural Health Centre Sher Shah. We also support the vaccination’s cold chain management and maintenance. In Balochistan, MSF nurses and a lab technician support the COVID-19 unit of the government’s centralised Fatima Jinnah hospital. We have also provided training to Balochistan Department of Health staff on patient transfer between facilities to COVID-19 facilities and support the transfer of COVID-19 samples from Dera Murad Jamali, Jaffarabad and Chaman to the provincial laboratory in Quetta.
Donate to support our crisis response work
Médecins Sans Frontières has been working in Afghanistan since 1980, providing emergency surgical care, responding to conflict and natural disasters, and treating people cut off from healthcare.
MSF worked in Angola from 1983 until 2007. Why were we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Social violence/Healthcare exclusion
MSF worked in Argentina from 2001 until 2003. Why were we there? Providing essential medicines and supplies
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
Cameroon is facing multiple and overlapping crises, including recurrent epidemics, malnutrition due to food insecurity, displacement, and conflict.
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
The political, economic and military crises of 2002-2010 have taken a severe toll on the Ivorian health system.
MSF worked in Ecuador until 2007. Why were we there? Endemic/Epidemic disease Natural disaster
In France, we work with migrants and refugees, who encounter policies and practices aimed at preventing them from settling or claiming their rights.
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/heathcare exclusion
Haiti’s healthcare system remains precarious in the wake of natural disasters and ongoing political and economic crises. Ongoing disasters have led to Haiti becoming the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Honduras has experienced years of political, economic and social instability, and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world. This has great medical, psychological and social consequences for people.
An MSF team in Hong Kong opened a project at the end of January focusing on health education for vulnerable people. Community engagement is a crucial activity of any outbreak response and in Hong Kong, this focuses on groups who are less likely to have access to important medical information, such as the socio-economically disadvantaged. The team is also targeting those who are more vulnerable to developing severe disease if they are infected, such as the elderly.
MSF worked in Indonesia between 1995 and 2009 Why were we there? Natural disaster
Jordan hosts over 700,000 refugees, according to the UNHCR, many of whom reside in camps or have settled in the country.
Although health services are being progressively restored in Liberia, important gaps persist, notably in specialised paediatric care and mental health.
Libya remains fragmented by a decade of conflict and political instability. The breakdown of law and order, the collapse of the economy, and fighting have decimated the healthcare system.
Access to medical care remains very limited in the north and centre of Mali due to a lack of medical staff and supplies and spiralling violence between armed groups.
Why are we there?
- Armed conflict
- Access to healthcare
Latest links
In Mozambique we are responding to emergencies including disease outbreaks, providing care to people with advanced HIV, while also working in the conflict-ridden Cabo-Delgado province.
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Providing comprehensive emergency healthcare to people in remote regions of Pakistan is a priority, yet accessibility and security are a constraint for both Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and patients.
At the end of 2007, MSF ended its activities in Rwanda after 16 years in the country. MSF's work included assistance to displaced persons, war surgery, programmes for unaccompanied children and street children, support to victims traumatised by the conflict, programmes to improve access to healthcare, responding to epidemics such as malaria, cholera and tuberculosis, and projects linked to maternal and reproductive health.
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence Healthcare exclusion